About

UGLY - Animated Shortfilm

€10,829

pledged of €10,000 goal

206

backers

Ugly is an experimental animated short film about a Native American Chief and an Ugly Cat, who try to find peace in an evil and destructive neighborhood. The film is based on an anonymous story from the internet and features �gly characters, faulty dynamic animation, a new age spiritual soundtrack and an over the top metaphysical storyline.

Meet Redbear, a benevolent Native American Chief, who enjoys smoking at the crack of dawn and loves the earth and all its creatures despite their flaws. And meet Ugly, a resident tomcat who dreams about the wonders of the universe and has the purest heart, but struggles all his life to make friends simply because he is ugly.

Facing a place where nothing is as solid as prejudice and intolerance, it is up to Redbear and Ugly to restore the balance.

Since being in control is often an illusion, we decided to give up on it. As a result, the animation in Ugly is somewhat different than what you'd normally expect from a Computer Generated film. It is a combination of puppeteering and dynamic simulations and is both hyper-realistic and imperfect which we thought goes well with the main theme in Ugly.

As a result, there are no in-between poses, the animation has to work linearly and every shot has to be animated in one go, which makes the process more accidental and spontaneous. In other words, it is similar to working with real actors, who are given directions, but can decide how to interpret these into their performance. That loss of control is often time consuming and frustrating. Nevertheless, it is also liberating and feels like every animated character embodies a real personality with all its quirks.

Chief Redbear Easterman about working on Ugly

The idea to make Ugly came about 3 years ago, when my friend Comfort Arthur came to visit, and we were completely blown away by the possibilities of a film about the Ugly Cat. Since then, countless drawings, storyboards, animatics and animation tests have been made.

The production team has been growing, but we still haven’t been able to fully focus on the project due to the limited time in between our regular money-paying jobs. We have exhausted our very limited budget, that we have pooled together from funding and our own savings, on hardware, licenses and working hours, and we have managed to produce more than half of the film; however, there is still a lot left to be done. The production process has gotten a lot quicker, but we would like to crank this up a notch and commit wholeheartedly to the complete development and production of Ugly. We are very fond of what this project is all about and would like it to be seen by as many like-minded people as possible. But, this will only be possible with your help.

We calculated that the minimum would be 10.000€. That would enable us to speed up the animation process, since our current approach is too time-consuming; pay for the music and sound of the second half of the film; and to produce those rewards for Kickstarter, as we have only produced prototypes.

We have prepared some exciting rewards for those who would like to help us with this project. The crucial thing to keep in mind is that, we have only 30 days to reach our goal. If we don't meet this goal, you won't spend any money, but there will also be no rewards and it will be very tough for us to finish the film. However, we believe that there are many people out there who see the world through the eyes of Redbear and Ugly; so please share this with everyone that you can think of, as we really need all the help we can get.

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WHAT YOU GET --> Now you're part of the crew! You will receive updates about the project + you will be listed as a backer on the website.

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samples --->

Bicycle Wheel

Morning Chant

Balcony Sun

Salvation Pipes

WHAT YOU GET --> Everything above + a digital copy of the New Age Ugly Soundtrack consisting of 4 spiritual tracks by Cédric Dekowski and Felix Reifenberg.

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WHAT YOU GET --> Everything above + a private early-bird download link to the completed film before it hits the festival round + an exclusive 3D lenticular Ugly Postcard.

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WHAT YOU GET --> An individually dyed silk-screen printed Ugly T-Shirt + all the FISHERMAN Rewards.

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WHAT YOU GET --> A limited edition cyan vinyl record of the spiritual Ugly Soundtrack including a bonus Ugly Clubtrack by Cédric Dekowski and Felix Reifenberg + all the FISHERMAN Rewards.

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An individually dyed silk-screen printed Ugly T-Shirt + a limited edition cyan vinyl record of the spiritual Ugly Soundtrack including a bonus Ugly clubtrack by Cédric Dekowski and Felix Reifenberg + all the FISHERMAN Rewards.

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WHAT YOU GET --> Everything above + your name listed as backer in the film credits + a limited edition Epic Ugly Poster signed by the production team (will be designed especially for backers who are in the film credits).

WHAT YOU GET --> An A1 framed lenticular 3D Ugly Picture (limited) + your name or logo listed as HOLYMAN sponsor in the film credits + invite to the film Premiere in Mainz, Germany + all WARRIOR rewards.

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WHAT YOU GET --> A limited edition collectable 3D Print of the Chief in colored Sandstone. (coming in 4 parts incl. Ugly assembly instructions) + your name or logo listed as CHIEF sponsor in the film credits + invite to the film Premiere in Mainz, Germany + all WARRIOR rewards.

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WHAT YOU GET --> A limited edition collectable 3D Print of the Chief in Gold Steel. (coming in 4 parts incl. Ugly assembly instructions) + your name listed as associate producer in the film credits + invite to the film Premiere in Mainz, Germany + all WARRIOR rewards.

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Risks and challenges

We estimate to finish the film by September 2016. If anything unforseeable happens, that deadline could be pushed back. However, all rewards that are independent of the completion of the film, would be delivered before that date (first quarter of 2016).

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge €100 or more
About $114

ELDER ✨ Everything above + your name listed as backer in the film credits + a limited edition Epic Ugly Poster signed by the production team (will be designed especially for backers who are in the film credits).

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge €700 or more
About $797

CHIEF ✨ A limited edition collectable 3D Print of the Chief in colored Sandstone. (coming in 4 parts incl. Ugly assembly instructions) + your name or logo listed as CHIEF sponsor in the film credits + invite to the film Premiere in Mainz, Germany + all WARRIOR rewards.